USW Championship
'The USW Championship '(also known/referred to as the Ultimate Showcase Wrestling Championship) is a world championship competed for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ultimate Showcase Wrestling, currently being competed for on the Wednesday Night Intensity brand. The championship is one of two world championships in Ultimate Showcase Wrestling, alongside the World Heavyweight Championship on the Friday Night Severity brand. The current champion is Suzuki Kirokashi, serving as the leader of the stable The Promise Land, who is currently in his first reign as champion. The championship was established on January 12, 2013 as one of two world championships for the promotion. In March of 2016, after the inaugural Ultimate Showcase Wrestling brand split, the USW Championship became exclusive property of the Wednesday Night Intensity brand, becoming the brand's sole world championship, while the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to the Friday Night Severity brand. History When Whacked Out Wrestling dissolved and later transitioned into Ultimate Showcase Wrestling, the promotion announced the creation of five championships, one of which happened to be the USW Championship. The championship was then officially declared active upon the first episode of USW Wednesday Night Intensity. While initially being a co-world championship with the World Heavyweight Championship, the USW Championship was always given the higher spot before the original brand split, most often closing out pay per view events. In March of 2016, when Ultimate Showcase Wrestling declared a brand split between Wednesday Night Intensity and the newly-created Friday Night Severity shows, with both shows getting their own rosters, the USW Championship became exclusive property of the Intensity brand, while the World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive property of the Severity brand, officially making it the only winnable world championship for any performer on the Intensity roster. Reigns Cannon was the first performer to hold the USW Championship, defeating Majagetta in the finals of a tournament to become the inaugural champion. Zack Hardy has held the championship the most times of any performer, with seven separate reigns with the championship, including two as his "ENIGMA" character in 2014. Majagetta and Alexander Rotten share the shortest reign with the championship, holding the championship for three days in total. James holds the longest reign with the championship, holding the championship for 441 days. 1 Zack Hardy used the name "ENIGMA" during his fourth and fifth championship reign, complete with a mask and new attire. The identity was referred to as an alternate personality for Hardy's character, therefor the character's reign is categorized under Hardy's name as opposed to his ENIGMA name. Championship Belt Design Current Design The current design features a bloated centerplate reading "Ultimate Showcase Wrestling Champion" in streamed-banners with a global in the center of the plate with engraving on either side of the globe. The sideplates are squared with sharpened-edges featuring wrestling maneuvers and the Ultimate Showcase Wrestling logos. Overall Designs The original USW Championship was an expanded circle, much like the design of the original WoW Xtreme Championship. In the middle of the championship read "Ultimate Showcase Wrestling, World, Champion" above a nameplate. There were two side plates, both of which bared the Ultimate Showcase Wrestling company logo. In April of 2014, then-champion Zack Hardy entered at USW Call To Greatness IX before his match against Morbid with a new championship design, which featured the center plate in the shape of the Ultimate Showcase Wrestling "five side" company logo that read "USW Champion" above a nameplate. There were four side plates, all of which were rectangular that all had branding specific to the promotion. This version of the championship was used up to Call To Greatness XIII. The "ENIGMA Belt" Design After Zack Hardy revealed himself to be ENIGMA (a masked character solely motivated by destruction) he brought out a performer-specific USW Championship design for his character. Being as Zack Hardy was the current USW Champion at the time of changing his gimmick, the championship was then changed to allow the ENIGMA character to be known as the USW Champion instead of the Zack Hardy character. The new design that the ENIGMA character debuted, self-titled the "ENIGMA Belt" featured a tiki-mask center plate of the ENIGMA mask, with two side plates, both of which had half of Zack Hardy's face, and the other half being the ENIGMA tiki-mask. Once Zack Hardy returned as the Zack Hardy character and put away the ENIGMA gimmick, he retired the championship design and brought back the "five side" USW Championship belt.